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Press Release: Skillz Announces Top Mobile eSports Winners of 2016

Drawing over 140,000 views, this partnership strengthens opportunities for charities and other sponsors to reach the diverse and rapidly growing eSports audience.

January 18, 2017

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Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, today announced the top mobile eSports winners of 2016. The Skillz platform runs over 500,000 tournaments a day for more than 10 million players. The top winners in 2016 stood out amongst the large user base by dedicating their time and energy to win over $1.8 million.

The top finisher, LLYW999, is from Michigan. However, California is the most represented area, with three of the top ten players hailing from the state. The remaining victors are residents of New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. On average, the top ten players competed in 16 different Skillz-powered games during the year, and played at least one tournament 275 days out of the year.

Top Winners in 2016

LLYW999 – $390,323

Chris_930 – $201,591

Jwrober – $180,982

Jerd – $175,308

2016xxww – $162,215

RoseLe – $160,771

Cdolma – $158,729

greenboo – $149,315

mammo19 – $143,345

roseliu32 – $137,539

Nine of the top ten winners qualify for the top 100 players across the entire industry based on total prizes won in 2016, according to eSportsEarnings.com. The top mobile player, LLYW999, was the 5th highest eSports earner in the U.S. By comparison, the top “League of Legends” player, Faker, has averaged just under $225,000 per year since he started competing in 2013, and the top “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” player, f0rest, made $137,650 in 2016.

“Our players spend an average of 58 minutes a day competing on the Skillz platform, nearly double the 33-minute casual mobile gaming industry average,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “Mobile eSports are growing to comprise a larger part of the industry every day. In fact, 2016 was the first year that one of the top five eSports was a mobile game.”

Skillz rewards players at every level of competition through acclaim, social recognition and prizes. Organized competition is the first step in transforming a game into an eSport, and a gamer into an athlete. The Skillz platform makes fair and fun mobile eSports competition accessible to everyone, allowing the world’s 2.1 billion mobile gamers to become eSports competitors.

“The money I’ve won from mobile eSports has gone to everything from medical bills to a new car,” said Alex Heitmann, the top winner on the Skillz platform in 2016. “I own a carpet cleaning business, but it’s nice to know that the hours I spend playing eSports also amount to something that I can consider a profession. It’s the combination of money, fun and competition that keeps me coming back.”

About Skillz

Skillz, the leading mobile eSports platform, connects the world’s 2.6 billion mobile gamers through competition. In 2017, Skillz was named the #1 fastest-growing private company in America by Inc. Magazine, the first eSports company on CNBC’s Disruptor 50, and the only eSports company on the San Francisco Business Times Fast 100. Over 12 million gamers use Skillz to compete in mobile games across 3,000+ game studios. Founded in 2012, Skillz is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading venture capitalists as well as the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets and Sacramento Kings. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.